TERRIFIC ENCOUNTER WITH A BURGLAR.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1041, 9 December 1882, Page 1

TERRIFIC ENCOUNTER WITH A BURGLAR.

Early on 9th September, Mr and Mrs Dowell, living in Down-road, Belgrave, near Leicester, were awakened by a burglar who was in their bedroom. Mrs Dowell, who is in delicate health, was first disturbed, and to her surprise, she saw a man’s head looking over the foot of the bedstead. She next saw him crawling on his hands and knees towards the door, and she at once called her husband’s attention. Mr Dowell sprang out of bed in pursuit of the burglar, who leapt down stairs in a bound, but Mr Dowell, although undressed lollowed as fast as ho could, and got hold of the burglar as be reached the sitting-room. The burglar, a very powerfully-built man, struggled most violently, and a frightful encounter ensued. Mr Dowel! held the burglar by the throat, and !iD shirt being shreds, the burglar coivd not lay hold of his naked body. The burglar proved the most powerful man of the two, and kept calling out. ‘ Give it to him,’ evidently to frighten Mrs Dowell and prevent her coming to her husband’s aid. She, however, with groat courage, ran, undressed, for a heavy poker, and just as her husband was being overpowered by the burglar, dealt the latter a heavy blow on the forehead, which drew blood and made the burglar reel. Encouraged by this, she next Attacked him from behind, and dealt him a decisive blow on the back of the head, which made an ugly wound, and knocked the burglar, streaming with blood, on the floor. The burglar was now thoroughly prostrate and unable to move. Assistance was procured, aud Sergeant Allen called in to apprehend the man. The police office found the burglar lying on the floor in a pool of of blood, while the room showed how sanguinary the struggle had been. The table was upside down, the furniture and the ornaments broken, and the whole place in confusion, while Mr Dowell was completely eUausted.—English paper.